Dems stiffen spines on health bill

Back home, nervous Democrats sound squishy on health care reform. Some will return to Washington this week demanding changes. A few will almost certainly threaten to withhold their votes.

But through it all — and through what is expected to be multiple near-death experiences for the health care bill in coming weeks — White House and congressional leaders plan to beat back the temptation of “no” with a hardball argument:

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Democrats already voted “yes.” And it would be politically disastrous to flip-flop now.

Senior Democratic aides say they aren’t panicking because they believe lawmakers who previously backed the bill understand the Democratic Party is lashed to health reform — even in the face of polls showing tepid public support, compromises that watered down the bill and mounting electoral angst for the party.

Spending a year on health care and coming up empty would be worse for Democrats than passing a sweeping overhaul in a politically hostile environment, aides argue.

“They have crossed the Rubicon,” said a senior Democratic Senate aide, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss political strategy. “They are in.”

“I wouldn’t say passage is a foregone conclusion,” added Drew Altman, president of the independent Kaiser Family Foundation, “but it is close to that.”

Naturally, the likelihood of Democrats holding 60 votes in the Senate and 218 votes in the House won’t always look assured. The glow of the Senate bill’s passage on Christmas Eve faded quickly as the messy realities of merging it with the House bill have firmly taken hold.

On Monday alone, the prospects of completing a bill hit multiple speed bumps.

President Barack Obama sought to quell labor union opposition, calling leaders to the White House to explain why he is siding with Senate Democrats on the need to tax high-end insurance plans. The meeting came hours after AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka gave a feisty speech at the National Press Club vowing to fight the tax.

The Senate bill, Trumka said, “does not deserve the support of working men and women.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), one of Obama’s most important allies in completing a health care bill, fought for his job and apologized again Monday for his comments about the president’s race. At the same time, Democrats scrambled to shore up the election prospects of Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts Senate race, where a loss in the Jan. 19 special election could leave the party one vote shy in the Senate.

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) declared during a CNBC interview that health care reform was “hanging by a thread,” given the ability of one or two lawmakers to torpedo the entire effort.